Growth Mindset and Affective Assessment

Growth Mindset and Affective Assessment

Supporting the growth mindset has been one of my biggest takeaways from this MAT program. Among other things, we’ve learned that students with a growth mindset persist through struggles, use mistakes as learning opportunities, and are more motivated to learn. I try to support the development of the growth mindset with the feedback I provide to students. When students succeed, saying things such as “you’re so smart” implies that intelligence is an innate or fixed trait that remains largely unchanged. Instead, I try to say things like “you must have worked so hard” to remind students that effort is the most important determinant of success. I have a few students who have really struggled throughout this semester, and I’ve tried to constantly remind them that they can improve their grade, but it won’t happen without effort.

    Another strategy I use to support the growth mindset is second chance learning. If a student performs poorly on a summative assessment such as a test or a quiz, he or she is eligible to retake the assessment if certain conditions are met. First, the student must complete a form in which they describe what they did to prepare for the last assessment, why that didn’t work for them, and what they will do differently to prepare for their retake. Then, the student must complete a study guide I’ve constructed to help them review the material. Finally, the student must make corrections to their first assessment. After all this is complete, the student may take a new assessment. Second chance learning of this nature helps students understand that we can learn from our mistakes. Furthermore, students who take advantage of second chance learning opportunities tend to realize that the reason they didn’t perform well on the first assessment wasn’t because they lacked the intelligence to do well; rather, they didn’t pay attention in class or didn’t study enough leading up to the assessment. These mistakes are fixable.

    I think my support of the growth mindset has created a very positive atmosphere in my classroom. I don’t have many students with poor attitudes, but even when certain students are struggling, they know that they only need a little effort to turn things around. The growth mindset has also allowed me to be a more flexible teacher. For example, I understand that not all students will prefer the same approach to learning as I do, so I need to incorporate variety into my lessons. Similarly, I know that some students need to put a little extra work into their studies to succeed. For this reason, our school has a “flex” mod in which students can sign up to go to a particular classroom for extra practice or more personalized instruction. In my opinion, this flex mod has also improved my relationship with my students. I have a handful of students who regularly come to my flex mod to ask questions, do practice problems, and study the material. Students appreciate that I will take the time to help them when they are struggling, and I’ve noticed that students will work harder for you when they know that you work harder for them.

    I use affective assessment to give my students a say in how the class runs. For example, I used an interest and engagement survey before and after students completed a project to see how student attitudes toward science and projects had changed. I learned that students enjoy completing projects and working in groups, so I’ve incorporated more group projects into my instruction. Most of my affective assessment, however, has been informal. I’ve polled the class a few times at the end of lessons to see how willing they’d be to do similar lessons again. This has taught me, for example, that my students aren’t big fans of WebQuests and most virtual labs. On the opposite end, students love competing against each other in review games, so I use Kahoot and Pictionary to make learning fun. As much as I try to use affective assessment to improve student learning, I admit that I can do more to incorporate this type of assessment in my instruction. I should consider using surveys at the beginning of each unit and as part of the summative assessment at the end of the unit to monitor students’ attitudes and feelings toward science.